Shooting
All video was shot in the garden with a DVcam. The rain tried to foil my video shoots on several occasions. It came close many times

Capturing
Used Final Cut Pro on an "AV" G3. Capturing takes a long time!

Editing
Learning Final Cut Pro wasn't too bad. Final Cut is a fairly sophisticated piece of software. I learned how to do some fairly complex editing, including some transitions. I also resorted to using QuickTime Pro for some editing. QuickTime's editing tools are quite simple to use, but at the same time quite limited and thus frustrating at times.

Compressing
Media Cleaner Pro's Wizard was very helpful--however, much experimenting and tweaking of these default settings was required. All video is faststart (progressive download). Each video actually has four (or five) movie files. The reference movie starts one of three movies (each compressed differently), depending on the connection speed of the user: 28.8/33.6, 56K, or T1/LAN. Most video was compressed with Sorensen. But video with high motion (ie, the train rides) compressed best with H.263.

Publishing
Dreamweaver helped me write the HTML pages. I utilized some Javascript to open movies in a new window. Each movie opens up in this new window, so if the user has enough screen "real estate," the index page can be used as a sort of remote. I made the HTML background black, and changed the BGCOLOR parameter of the movie to black as well.

Biggest issue was when Final Cut Pro gave me several problems on several occasions. The sound would drop out for an unknown reason, making editing difficult. Also, Final Cut sometimes didn't export the correct movie with most recent edits(!). At these times I resorted to editing with QuickTime.

Another issue was time. I didn't realize how long it takes to capture video and to compress video. With more than 80 quicktime movies totaI, compression took a long time.Final Cut's batch capturing was very usefull--many times I let it run overnight. My biggest batch process ran over 24 hours!

Opening up the movie in a separate window is nice, but sometimes it would get covered up by another window (and hence it would appear that clicking a new movie does nothing). So I added some more Javascript to focus on the movie window whenever a movie link is clicked.

Content will be Dr Norm Lownds showing off parts of the Michigan 4-H Children's Garden at MSU. This implementation will very likely be part of a larger project that I will continue for pay and/or independent study. What makes this project interesting is both the location and the guide. The children's garden is a special place, which stands on it's on. On video (versus in person) it may loose some of it's appeal, but Dr Norm, the curator, will more than make up for this in his guided tour.

The scope of this project is quite large. I plan to do almost all of it myself--from start to finish. DR Norm will write the storyboard/script, and provide on-camera narration. I plan to do all videography, including setting up and shooting with (the CTL's) Sony DVcam w/external mic. (Most shooting will be done using a tripod; some may be done walking around following Dr. Norm.) I will then capture the video off the DV tape onto a G3 (20+ GB avail. on HD). I will edit with Final Cut Pro. I will compress with Media Cleaner Pro.

The final video will then be placed online in the form of a quickstart Quicktime movie. The target audience are fans of the children's garden, so it will likely be placed inline at the Children's Garden website: 4hgarden.msu.edu. This site uses Flash and Shockwave somewhat intensively, so most users are using a up-to-date software/hardware and a decent Internet connection. A QuickTime reference movie will detect the connection speed and provide the movie most appropriate in size: T1, ISDN, and 28.8.

One of my personal goals is to learn how to shoot and process video. I have previously digitized VHS video, then created and posted quickstart QuickTime online, but I did not completely understand the various compression techniques. My other goals include learning the differences in compression as well as the many other details which go into the webcasting process.

Peter Maziak's email is maziak@msu.edu